Reflections on "Radicals in Their Own Time: Four Hundred Years of Struggle for Liberty and Equal Justice in America" (Cambridge Univ. Press 2011)

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Thomas Paine - Radical of the Revolution

LAST TIME: Roger Williams - America's First Radical

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) is the second person profiled in Radicals in Their Own Time: Four Hundred Years of Struggle for Liberty and Equal Justice in America (Cambridge 2011).

Paine, a corset staymaker’s son with a checkered past career, moved from England to the colonies in late 1774 at the relatively-advanced age of thirty-seven. Yet he made his presence felt almost immediately in America with the January 1776 publication of Common Sense, penning the words that provided “the January heat of 1776 that balanced the July light of Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence,” and lending crucial moral support to the revolutionary cause in its darkest hours.

A key intellectual player in not one, but two, revolutions (American and French), Paine's flair for the written word was much-admired: Ben Franklin once said, “Others can rule, many can fight, but only Paine can write for us the English tongue”; and Thomas Jefferson, who for many years sent Paine manuscripts for criticism and correction, wrote him, “You must not be too much elated … when I tell you my belief that you are the only writer in America who can write better than your obliged and obedient servant - Thomas Jefferson.”

Like the other four radicals profiled in Radicals in Their Own Time (Roger Williams, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, W.E.B. Du Bois, Vine Deloria Jr.), Paine believed that governmental tolerance for the autonomy of all citizens is a fundamental, mandatory feature of American democracy. He explained the concept in the 1792 Rights of Man: “Natural rights are those which appertain to man in right of his existence. Of this kind are all the intellectual rights, or rights of the mind, and also all those rights of acting as an individual for his own comfort and happiness, which are not injurious to the natural rights of others.”

As for the role of society and government vis-à-vis those natural rights, Paine elaborated: “Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.” “Man did not enter into society to become worse than he was before, not to have fewer rights than he had before, but to have those rights better secured.” In other words, government, which is merely a useful tool devised to protect every person’s pre-existing natural rights, simply lacks authority to curtail these rights. Government, one might say, is Liberty’s servant.

Also like the other four profiled radicals, Paine too believed that religious orthodoxy had been a significant source of intolerance throughout history. He admired Jesus Christ the man, and the principles of tolerance, equality, humility and forgiveness he advocated. “[Jesus] was a virtuous and an amiable man,” Paine explained in the Age of Reason. “The morality that he preached and practiced was of the most benevolent kind.” Paine admired Christ's stubborn commitment to principle (recognizing, no doubt, some of himself in Christ’s own persecuted life experiences): “[Christ] preached also against the corruptions and avarice of the Jewish priests; and this brought upon him the hatred and vengeance of the whole order of priesthood,” Paine recalled. “The accusation which those priests brought against him was that of sedition and conspiracy against the Roman government, to which the Jews were then subject…. Jesus Christ [likely] had in contemplation the delivery of the Jewish nation from the bondage of the Romans.”

And for that, Paine explained, “this virtuous reformer and revolutionist lost his life.” One might accurately say Jesus Christ was himself a radical in his own time.

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Testimonials about "Radicals in Their Own Time"

Michael Lawrence’s book is a genuine tour-de-force, linking five Americans across four centuries who fought to improve their world.A novel, exciting, and inspiring book, it is a must read for all Americans who need to know more about their radical history.Lawrence has produced vivid and unforgettable snapshot portraits of five crucially important figures, who are not as recognizable as Franklin, Washington, or Jefferson, but whose impact on American history nevertheless cannot now be underestimated.His slice through history, highlighting the life and work of Roger Williams, Thomas Paine, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, W. E. B. Dubois, and Vine Deloria, demonstrates the commanding influence of those who have taken risks for all of us to ensure that our ongoing struggle to achieve the Constitution’s guarantees of liberty, justice, and equality will ultimately, someday, prevail.

Jack FruchtmanProfessor of Political ScienceDirector, Program in Law and American CivilizationTowson University

Liberty never expands without brave souls who stand up to the powerful forces that seek to constrict it. Students today know only a few of the names of those battlers and fewer still of their stories. Radicalsin Their Own Times will open their eyes to characters they’ve never met, but whom they will find valuable tutors in the ways and costs of expanding human rights. This splendidly written book is a vivid and valuable contribution to our understanding of the struggles that yielded the rights and freedoms we too often take for granted.

G. Calvin MackenzieGoldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of American Government

Colby College

It has been more than half a century since John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage -- now Michael Anthony Lawrence repopulates American legal history with five forgotten (or at least sometimes forgotten) heroes. ... As Lawrence sweeps across four centuries of American history, he causes us to rethink American traditions of legal, religious, and political thought. And he reminds us all that American history is frequently more concerned with toppling hierarchy than supporting it.